Will Scorsese’s THE WOLF OF WALL STREET Move To 2014?
It looks like The Wolf of Wall Street may pull a Shutter Island and move out of Oscar contention for a prime spot in early 2014. At least that’s a possibility now that Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Wall Street broker Jordan Belfort’s best-selling memoir is running 180 minutes long and needs some editing to make any 2013 release date. According to THR, The Wolf of Wall Street is likely to shift its release from Nov. 15 to Christmas Day to give the legendary filmmaker a chance to tighten the film. That move would push Paramount’s Jack Ryan off until early 2014. Of course, there’s always the chance that The Wolf of Wall Street could remove itself from awards season contention all together, much like Scorsese’s Shutter Island did four years ago. That movie shifted from Oct. 2, 2009, to Feb. 19, 2010, giving Paramount more time for promotion and in the...
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The Contenders: 12 YEARS A SLAVE Becomes The Oscar Front Runner With Toronto Win
The Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award doesn’t always precisely line up with Oscar. But in the last five years, four winners have gone on to Best Picture nominations and two (Slumdog Millionaire, The King’s Speech) have gone on to win Oscar’s big prize. So if nothing else, Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, which won the People’s Choice Award at the 2013 fest, just earned itself a guaranteed spot on the Best Picture nominations list. As of today, it’s also you’re likely winner. The reception for 12 Years a Slave was outstanding at Telluride, where people who saw the movie instantly touted it as the Oscar front runner. Given the hyperbole that tends to come along with these Oscar season fests, I didn’t buy it. But with the People’s Choice Award win, 12 Years a Slave proves that beyond critics and hardcore...
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Consider This Sh*t: James Franco’s SPRING BREAKERS Oscar Campaign
If this was any other movie, I wouldn’t even believe it was real. But it’s James Franco and Harmony Korine, so a hyper-real Oscar campaign is about right. Franco’s long-shot campaign for Best Supporting Actor in Korine’s Spring Breakers was released to THR over the weekend, making it one of the first For Your Consideration ads of the Oscar season. It’s also the first and likely only campaign to ever include word “shit” in its messaging. While there’s no better way to win attention than to create a campaign that gets right to the heart of the character/actor it’s supporting, this Spring Breakers ad won’t likely win over the old, white male Academy voters. Still, as Harmony Korine’s only consistently watchable movie and his likely masterpiece, Spring Breakers deserves some recognition come the end of the year. Maybe, just maybe, some brave critics group will...
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The Contenders: Telluride Buzz For 12 YEARS A SLAVE, GRAVITY And PRISONERS
Just as Labor Day weekend marks the official end of summer, the Telluride Film Festival, which wraps up today, marks the official start of Oscar season. Coming out of the festival, it looks like three movies have gained the most momentum. First, Steve McQueen’s follow-up to Shame, 12 Years a Slave, is being called a masterpiece, with Chiwetel Ejiofor scoring big buzz as the film’s star. The no-hold-barred slavery drama is already being touted as the Oscar front-runner, albeit prematurely. If there’s one thing we know about Oscar it’s that movies that sound this good are hard sells to the Academy. I’m saying this sight unseen, of course, but that’s how the Oscar season works, isn’t it? In addition to 12 Years a Slave, the festivals biggest surprise appears to be Prisoners, a missing child drama from French Canadian...
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Telluride Announces 2013 Line-Up, Including BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
And we’re off. As of today, Oscar season officially begins with the start of the Telluride Film Festival. This year’s fest, the 40th, like most years includes a heavy list of Oscar contenders from the Coens, Alexander Payne, Werner Herzog, Errol Morris and Jason Reitman. One of the best parts of the Telluride Fest is that the line-up is keep secret until right before the festival begins. So yesterday, the good folks at this unlikely major festival announced the line-up for the main program, simply called “The Show:” ALL IS LOST (d. J.C. Chandor, U.S., 2013) BEFORE THE WINTER CHILL (d. Philippe Claudel, France, 2013) BETHLEHEM (d. Yuval Adler, Israel, 2013) BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (d. Abdellatif Kechiche, France, 2013) BURNING BUSH (d. Agnieszka Holland, Czech Republic, 2013) DEATH ROW: BLAINE MILAM + ROBERT FRATTA (d. Werner Herzog,...
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In Non-Batfleck Related News, Ben Affleck Inspires The Razzies Redeemer Award
One of the biggest arguments against Ben Affleck as Batman was his troubled past. Pearl Harbor. Reindeer Games. Gigli, which earned him two Golden Raspberry Awards from the Razzies, as well as a nomination for worst actor of the decade. But as his career improved, he made Gone Baby Gone. Then The Town. Just this year he won his second Oscar, this time for Best Picture, for his movie Argo. Now there’s a turnaround that deserves some recognition. Inspired by Affleck, the Razzies have created the new Redeemer awards, honoring people who went from the worst to the best. According to Razzies founder John Wilson: “The Razzies were originally meant not only to point out the year’s ‘Worst Achievements in Film,’ but it was also hoped they would also serve as encouragement for each year’s nominees to make better choices on future projects, thus eventually...
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